Tony Roche

Anthony "Tony" Dalton Roche (born 17 May 1945) is a former professional Australian tennis player, born in Tarcutta. He played junior tennis in the New South Wales regional city of Wagga Wagga. He is also very well known for coaching multi-grand slam winning World Number Ones Ivan Lendl, Patrick Rafter, Roger Federer and currently, Lleyton

Hewitt. Roche grew up playing in Australia under the tutelage of Harry Hopman, who also coached other Australian tennis players such as Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall. A left-hander, Roche had a successful singles and double career. He won one singles Grand Slam tournament - the 1966 French Open at Roland Garros. He was five times the runner-up at Grand Slam tournaments - the French Championships in 1965 and 1967, Wimbledon in 1968, and the US Open in 1969 and 1970. With John Newcombe, he won 12 Grand Slam men's doubles tournaments. In 1968, Roche turned professional, signing with World Championship Tennis, joining other pros like Cliff Drysdale, Nikki Pilic, and Roger Taylor to form the "Handsome Eight". Perhaps one of his greatest achievements came in 1977, being called up to play singles in the finals of the Davis Cup tournament versus Italy,